JASIN, July 15 -- The Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC) has urged karas tree entrepreneurs in this country to adopt the bamboo stick and dripping inoculation method for cost-effective production of better quality agarwood.
Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali said research on the method was conducted on 100 karas trees by two researchers with a RM100,000 allocation at the Karas Estate near Jus Dam here in November 2017.
He said the research was conducted by Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB) in collaboration with the state Economic Planning Unit of Melaka for the production of agarwood and resin agarwood.


"Through the bamboo stick and dripping inoculation method, the production of core agarwood on average is as much as five kg per tree with a sales market value of RM800 per kg. We hope this system can benefit agarwood entrepreneurs in the country.
“The study shows that this is the best inoculation method compared with other methods such as direct inducement using chemjet, bag dripping system and bottle inducement," he told reporters after visiting the site today.
He said the the study would be used as a benchmark for MTIB and MPIC to apply for an allocation under the inoculation assistance project under the 12th Malaysia Plan in January next year.
He added that so far, there is no specific inoculation assistance allocated by the government to assist agarwood entrepreneurs to substantially boost agarwood exports.
Mohd Khairuddin said courses on the bamboo stick and dripping inoculation system method for entrepreneurs would be conducted in the near future.
He noted that agarwood exporters and importers registered under MTIB currently comprise 13 companies, 22 companies or individuals registered as resin producers and more than 50 agarwood products entrepreneurs.
Only 2.3 million karas trees are registered under MTIB out of the approximately 10 million trees planted nationwide, he said, urging entrepreneurs to register their trees for record purposes.
-- BERNAMA

https://www.bernama.com/en/business/news.php?id=1860900
Source: bernama.com